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Topic: bridge pulled up on C104 SCE (Read 4988 times)

The bridge and some of the underlying wood pulled loose from my 7-year-old C104 SCE. I have over 20 other guitars, and never saw this problem before. Treated like a babe, kept in the case, original gauge strings never tuned high; even now, it's like new (except for the bridge). I've played semi-pro for 40 years, and love my guitars, so treat them very well. The C104 is/was an outstanding musical instrument, in new condition til it failed due to the bridge tearing loose.

I called WB, who pointed me to a local music shop, who looked at the separated bridge and says he never saw this kind of problem before. He also spotted what he says seems to be a scoring around where the bridge was attached, which also has him puzzled. But that could explain why the wood pulled up. Just to be clear, the bridge didn't simply separate at the glue; there's wood attached to the back of the bridge where the guitar top wood tore loose. Has anybody seen this problem?

The tech called WB company, and said they don't intend to either repair the guitar or replace it, commenting they believe the problem must have been abuse. So, when a customer is right and gets a wrong response from the company, anybody have any advice on how to raise this to the next level of attention at WB? I believe WB intends to properly honor warranties, but I believe I'm getting a mistaken or, at least uninformed, response at this point. As nice as the instruments are, I'd hate it if bad service experience got in the way of WB and me swapping money for guitars in the future.

I have an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ500RC on which the bridge lifted...but, that has been historically a routine occurence for this model, it happens all the time (not so much on other models).

I had the bridge reset by a local luthier rather than having Epiphone repair it under warranty, believing that if Epiphone repaired it they would repair it to original condition and I was already convinced that was inadequate, given the frequency of the problem reported with that model.

I have a Washburn C124SWK classical, it is an incredible classical, almost the equal of my concert grade Hippner Hauser model and only about 20% the price of the Hippner. I have not experienced any such problems with the guitar.

My suggestion is that you get enough posts that you can send a message through the forum software to WB-Nick or to WEbGuy, both of whom are highly placed in the Washburn organization. I have had reservations regarding the warranty service from other brands, but every time someone posts their experiences with Washburn's warranty department on the forum the end result is positive, so if Dr. Phil is right in saying the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior I suspect you'll get what you need from Washburn. I think it may take 10 or 15 posts before you can use the forum software to send them a message...go to Show us your Washburn and post up a bunch of Way cool guitar responses and you'll get there quickly (or, better yet, go to the classical guitar section in the Acoustic Guitar area and post there, we really need more posters in that area!!).

Please keep us posted regarding the progress on this problem. I know that I made sure the dealer from whom I purchased my C124SWK was an authorized Washburn dealer b/c I wanted the factory warranty...made certain the dealer from whom I purchased my WMJ11S was, also.

I have had nothing but positive experiences whenever I messaged WB-Nick....I suggest you try him first.

Pike, Nick and Your Royal Dugliness--Sincere thanks, dudes! I got Nick's note (Nick--thanks!), and follow-up emails from American Music & Sound requesting pictures of the bridge and original receipt. After I sent that, Tim McCarthy, AM&S, arranged an RMA, and I shipped the guitar to the good folks at AM&S a couple of days ago.

There are some manufacturers whose construction practices lead to problems that plague a particular model (like my Epi AJ500RC) or a particular line, but this is the first I've heard of a Washburn steel-string acoustic guitar's bridge lifting (the bridge on my D61SW is cracked, but I knew it was that way when I bought it and a shim took care of the problem....one day I'll replace the bridge, but for now it is playing and sounding perfect, so it's hard to argue with success, I guess).

At any rate, your Washburn would not be covered by the warranty....only new Washburns purchased from a Washburn authorized dealer qualify for the limited lifetime warranty.

I had the bridge on my Epiphone AJ500RC reset by a local luthier and it only cost $40. If you got that Flint Hill for less than that, you got a great deal; if not, you probably are being charged too much by the shop for the reset. Was the guitar that inexpensive? If so, then the seller probably realized the issue was developing and sold it at such a reasonable price to allow the buyer to have the defect remedied within a reasonable total price range.

Re: car companies, yes, you get a recall notice when there's a manufacturing flaw, but the occasional lemon gets through on an assembly line and you don't get the notice from the car manufacturers for those....your WD52SW's issue was probably a similar fluke. Your Buyer Beware advice is sound, regardless of the product or price.

Hope you stick around....you obviously have the same respect for Washburn products that we do.

Dan, something else just occured to me....it wasn't an issue as long as the guitar under discussion was a classical, but now that we're talking about steel strings it bears mentioning.

I usually tune my guitar by bringing each individual string to the first sharp indicator on my Intellitouch tuner, then grabbing the string at the 12th fret and stretching it (by lifting it perpindicular to the soundboard on a classical) until the string stretches-in to correct pitch...this also helps load the correct face of the gears in the tuners and helps it hold tone.

I recall very specifically that when I heard that gut-wrenching cracking sound on my AJ500RC, I was pulling the string in the same manner as I would have one of my classical guitar strings. After the luthier reset the bridge, I switched my practice with the steel-string guitars...to stretch in a string I simply grab it, lift it enough so that it can clear the adjacent strings, and then pull it in a vector parallel to the soundboard. I have never lifted a bridge since then, not even on my AJ500RC. It was never a worry with my Washburns b/c of the huge butterfly bridge the WD32SW and the WD32S have (both also have matte finishes on the soundboard), but the bridge on my WMJ11S is a standard style bridge and the soundboard has a gloss finish, so I now stretch those in horizontally rather than vertically, too.

My classicals I still stretch in vertically....that's why it was so unusual that mdhsabh's bridge lifted, the classical strings put so much less tension on the bridge that the problem is almost unheard of with classicals. Steel-strings, though....I've had 2 repaired, already--my Epi and an old Silvertone. The repair to the Silvertone was more than the guitar was worth, but it has cool factor so it got fixed.

Anyway, if you stretch your strings in to tune, you might want to change to the method I now use with the steel-strings.

I had the bridge on my Epiphone AJ500RC reset by a local luthier and it only cost $40.

Pretty much the same as what I paid a luthier to reglue the bridge on a mid '70's vintage Guild flat top. This is a simple fix, clean and lightly sand the surfaces, glue and clamp. Not much to it, really. I had another guitar that needed a bridge made. Even that was only a hundred bucks or so. Assuming the Flint Hill did not cost less than $40-50 then something seems amiss.